WHEN AVID READER Marley Dias was in
fifth grade, she noticed that her school’s
assigned reading list of books was quite
different from her book collection.

“I noticed that all of the books that weread featured white boys and their dogs asthe main characters. And the reason I wasable to notice this is because in my per-sonal library and then in my home library,I got to see kids of multiple races, ethnici-ties, genders and abilities share their expe-riences and their stories, and I especiallygot to see black girls because I am a blackgirl,” says ;;-year-old Dias of New Jersey.“I thought there was a huge deficit and thatthere was a need for black girls to be seen.They’re only giving us a small selection ofbooks, and these books are not diverse.”Dias shared her concern with hermother, Janice Johnson Dias, presidentand co-founder of the GrassROOTSCommunity Foundation (grassrootscom
munityfoundation.org), a public-healthand social-action organization. Hermother encouraged her to do somethingabout it. During sixth grade, with the helpof the foundation and under the supervi-sion of her parents, Dias began a socialmedia campaign to collect ;,;;; booksthat feature black girls as the protagonistwith the ;;;;;blackgirlbooks hashtag. Thehashtag went viral, and Dias was able tocollect ;;,;;; books, ;,;;; of which shedonated to her mother’s hometown schooland library in Retreat, St. Mary, Jamaica.

“I thought it was just going to be a learning experience where I would gain kind of
the skills to figure out how to organize, galvanize and plan, but the GrassROOTS
Community Foundation started by my
mother helped me develop a strategic plan
to use my gifts and talents and my love for
reading to connect with a lot of other young
people on social media,” Dias tells The
Connection during a phone interview.

When Scholastic, a global publisher
and distributor of children’s books,
approached her to write a book about her

1/30), is available in Costco warehouses. Marley makesher markexperience, she was thrilled. Scholasticbook fairs at her elementary school were astaple of her childhood.

“It’s a huge part of how I was able to get
books, and now I want to be able to add a
new diverse title to that, and I’m excited,
because when I go back to my elementary
school on book-fair day, which I’m definitely [going to] try to do, I’m [going to] be
able to see myself and see my book and my
hard work,” Dias says.

Dias’ book, Marley Dias Gets It Done—
And So Can You!, was written to uplift,
help, motivate and give advice to young
people who want to start their own campaigns. Dias says working with the
Scholastic team was a collaborative process in which she would share her ideas,
such as creating the book to look like a
magazine and making it enjoyable for kids
who didn’t necessarily like reading. Dias
made time for writing everywhere she
went, even on trips to the nail salon with
her mom, who helped her along the way
with a fresh perspective.

“It was just really fun to do that, and it
was a lot of work, but I’m definitely really
proud of it and I’m so, so excited for it to be
out,” Dias says. “I wanted to influence kids
and to show them that their passions and
their frustrations have value, and I wanted
to teach parents and to teach educators
that kids’ ideas are important and that
there should be open spaces for them to
share those things.” C

Marley Dias pushes for literary diversityand writes a book about her experience